Video chop??
 

Ok sounds strange.

I've recently aquired a new MP4 player (unbranded, of course), and I was up to converting some vids; where i noticed something strange.

My player is 128 X 128, which is what i'm converting my vids to, but I saw on the player that the right most part of the video was missing. So i tried verifying it with the amv player, and saw that the problem's in the coversion, and it happens there too.

What's effectively happening is that the rightmost 1/6 th part of the video is being chopped off when i convert it to 128 X 128. Is this a known bug in the conversion tool, or am i missing something?

Thanks,
Don

Re: Video chop??
 

Don,

What happens when you convert it with 128 x 96 resolution instead?

Try also downloading our sample .AMV files from our site as well and see how they play on your player. Have a look here: http://www.mympxplayer.com/dload.php...gory&cat_id=11

Tell me what happens when you play our samples on your player. They are converted with 128 x 96 resolution.

Re: Video chop??
 

Thanx Mr. Admin,

Well, firstly I'm not sure you got the problem right. The player doesn't even come into question. All I do is convert a .avi file to .amv file @ 128 X 128, and just play it with the AMV player. Both the converter & player are downloaded from this site. And the video is chopped; so is there a solution to that?

And I tried the 128 X 96, and there's no chop! It's perfect, just that there's two black patches at the top and bottom, when i play it on my player. So that resolution is no good.

Thanks again,
Don

Re: Video chop??
 

Don,

Try uninstalling, then reinstall amvtools. Which version do you have?
Please post results.


Iridium

Re: Video chop??
 

Well,

Thanx Iridium. I tried reinstalling the tools, and it's no good. Version 3.68, but i see that 4.00 is out, I will try and out and post later

Re: Video chop??
 

..try that* out and post later :-P

Re: Video chop??
 

Ok,

Back on it.. Well, i tried converter tool 4.00, and it's still the same. In fact, I just cannot see how others are not having this problem, as it is happening at the conversion level, and not at the player level.

Let me detail out what I do. I first run my standard mpeg video, with resolution say, 350X280, through Open Video Converter (http://www.008soft.com/products/open..._converter.htm), which saves the result as a .avi file, with a customizable frame rate, which I choose 12Hz. This entire deal is done so as to avoid the jumps or jerks in the video after conversion.

The resulting file is fed to amv convertor, which converts the 350X280@12Hz avi file to an 128X128@12Hz amv file. Now this file has a verticle strip at the rightmost part chopped. And before you ask, if I skip the frame rate conversion, it's not any better. It's both jerky and chopped!

I'd really like people to try out conversion, by looking closely at the source and final videos and tell me if there's no chopping happening.

Thanx,
Don

Don

Have you tried VirtualDub to resize and change the frame rate of your video file instead?

Re: Video chop??
 

Hey,

I did try virtual Dub, but that software's operation was beyond my comprehension. It was storing back avi's which were thousands of gigs in size.

Even ignoring the frame rate and resize issue, somebody, please tell me if this chop is there at all, or is it specific to my computer or *copy of of the amv converter tool*.. ha ha

Don

Re: Video chop??
 

Well,

try playing converted file back in AMVplayer. as movie is playing, right click on it. go to 'property' and post results back here. e.g. 128x96 12fps etc.
We need to know how the player is reading the file. if it is the full 128x128, or whatever parameters you originally entered, but is showing only part of pic, then i would go back to original file, right click and post results so we can compare...
i have not heard of this before.

i.

Re: Video chop??
 

Ok,

I did check the properties playing back in the player and it reports 128X128 @ 12 Hz, with audio at 22kHz, 1 channel. Thats about the same transformational properties i put in when converting.

I dont like to think its the player software's problem, cuz the chopping occurs even on my hardware player. so i'd kinda like to b'live that it's happening somewhere in the conversion level.

I actually noticed it first when i was converting some vid by one of these ripping sites, who usually put some logo on the top right of the screen. When i played the converted vid in the hardware or software player, i noticed that the logo was almost entirely missing.

So, any other ideas?

Thanx,
Don

Don, the same thing happens on my conversions so it is not just you. I think it is how the software manages when converting from a rectangular 4x3 image format to square 4x4 image format.

Re: Video chop??
 

Don & tadad,

Let's step back from this a second.

Is this the only file that does this, or do all files do this ?
Also, please play around with the resolutions. It still sounds like the parameters you entered are inncorrect for your player :
'' And I tried the 128 X 96, and there's no chop! It's perfect,...''.
Now, you may have to rotate outputted (sp?) file 90' in order for it to show full screen. To do this take your crappy original mpeg file and load it into this :

http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=972

Then select advanced features and flip 90'
You can also set resolution, EG 128x96, or 96x128 etc. Save to desktop then run it thru amvconvert. Again please play w / the sizing options until you get a correct fit.

Post results. Good luck.
I

Re: Video chop??
 

Ok I appears to be to do with the focus setting. I have left this setting untouched at default setting of "2" and all my video conversions at whatever resolution seem to be slightly left justified, however when I set the focus setting to "0" the image is perfectly centred. So the focus setting must dictate how the image is cropped to accomodate the small screen format.

Re: Video chop??
 

Finally, I have company!!

"Is this the only file that does this, or do all files do this ?"

All files, its just that that one caught my eye first, thats all


"" Also, please play around with the resolutions. It still sounds like the parameters you entered are inncorrect for your player :
'' And I tried the 128 X 96, and there's no chop! It's perfect,...''.
Now, you may have to rotate outputted (sp?) file 90' in order for it to show full screen. ""

You still dont seem to get it. All those chops i talk about are what i notice in the amv player software. The hardware player doesnt even come into question. Let's just say that my hardware player shows exactly what i can see in the software player. So altho the 128X96 looks chopless (no right end chop) in both the software and the hardware player, since my vertical resolution on the hardware player is 128, i guess it's putting blank patches above and below. i think we can conveniently assume that the hardware player is 128x128 and there's no fallacy in that part of it.

I tried all the modes. I saw the left justification too, but dint think much of it. But the chop exists in all the modes. I'd really like somebody to explain in detail what those 3 modes are (which doesnt even exist in the latest version, which seems more like a downgrade than an upgrade, v 4.00, i mean :-P ).

Good, now only if i can get a few more pplz to vouch for it, maybe we have a known bug :)

Later
Don

Re: Video chop??
 

Here are some excellent guidelines for getting the most out of your AMV videos.

http://www.s1mp3.org/wiki/index.php/Video_encoding

Re: Video chop??
 

Hey Tadad,

Thanks for that link. I tried a lot of things mentioned there, and it kind of works. Pretty good on that

And actualy it makes sense. Like you said, a rectangular video is being made into a square video. And since i cant see any stretch (or rather compression in this case) there has to be some form of an automatic cropping. Guess thats what is taking place.

Anyways,
Thanks for all your help
Don

Re: Video chop??
 

I noticed this on my amv’s but I know why it’s done, and for a fairly good reason. Your common TV aspect is 4:3. your player screen is 3:4. Apparently there’s a way to encode the video rotated 90 degrees so you can watch full screen with proper aspect and that’s exactly what the SMV players do.

So if you want full screen video on a 3:4 screen, you must either crop the sides or squish the video. This is what I found when playing with the amv encoder: Mode 1 will squish the video horizontally to fit. Modes 0 and 2 crop the edges to fit and mode 3 zooms and crops right side.

Considering the screen size, cropping can be your friend, you may loose some of the video but what you do see is bigger than it would have been uncropped. I was using Virtual dub to resize and crop video even more to “zoom” in on the best part of the videos.

Re: Video chop??
 

Relaxxx,

Good on that info. It makes sense, but my player has a 128 X 128 resolution, making that an aspect ratio of 1:1. 4:4, if u will :P

Anyways, I probably prefer the crop to a potential compressing action. But I would like it if there was an equal crop on the left and right. As of now, the crop is only on the right side; i.e, if the video is say (0,0) - (150,128), the resultant video is cropped as (0,0) - (128,128). What I may prefer, and the general consensus, would be rather like (11,0) - (139,128), which is like the center most part of the video.

Guess there's a long way to go for that,
Later,
Don